


The Soulmate Show!

by Forgotten_Logic



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Bars and Pubs, Depression, Drinking, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Prowl is a sad boi, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 06:11:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14443062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forgotten_Logic/pseuds/Forgotten_Logic
Summary: Many seasons go by and finales come with an ever-present disapointment and fear that haunts Prowl.





	The Soulmate Show!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, look, I can still write things. lol

The first season Prowl took it as a joke, an odd attempt at humiliation. Then the ratings skyrocketed, theories about him floated around in data streams, flowing from the series commentators. Those theories, other mecha bombarding their feeds with their theories--some going so far as to ship him with mecha he sees in his daily life.

As for humiliation, it was working. Seeing how many mecha now took extra precaution to only avoid him, at work, on the streets, and for any reason at all. It was becoming tiresome and embarrassing that _he_ was the mech that made others scuttle to the opposite side of the street. 

He was a mech like the rest of them! Why did they wish to torment him on the basis that he may not have the most kind approach to things or mecha? (Nor was he the most ethical) but that shouldn't stop mecha _everywhere_ from conversing with him. 

Each orn was then cause for debauchery. Was there really a point in this hilarious excuse for a potential romantic comedy? Hardly. After 16 seasons and countless orns of disappointments and all the more conspiracy theories, one kept knocking him down every time he saw it. _What if he didn't have a soulmate?_ It was absurd, he thought, to tie one's worth based on an “if”.

But he wasn't everyone else, he wasn't well liked aside from the _hilarious fact_ that slapped him in the face: no one wanted to know him, or who he was, or even who he was willing to be. Not so much as in change to suit a potential mate but as a better mech. Primus knew--Prowl knew all the better--that he wasn't a nice mech, but he could break like one.

Alone--save for a cameramech that hung back, never giving any commentary--and being watched from the far side of the bar. Dark and musty, offset by a crisp smelling, crimson-colored drink that expelled light from its container. The barkeep kept quiet, tending to those on the opposite side of the oval-shaped bar. Prowl’s optics didn’t function so well in the dimly lit place. More light came off of him than from his surroundings, that and his drink. 

It was as sudden as a flicker of light, he felt tired, drained, lost; fulfilling a purpose that wasn’t his by choice. Like everything that he had to offer was stolen away from his frame. Trembling, breathless, with a cold climax of reality setting in: he didn’t know where his life was going or even why. All he did know was that each step, each swig, and each and every orn that he didn’t fulfill the need to find his soulmate, was just another day or wondering if there was still purpose in his function. 

From the back of the bar, the camera was on, capturing how quickly everyone’s favorite ass was breaking. Drunk, depressed, fearful of a life that lustlessly had fallen short of lovers that remained. The mecha watched and felt something hard in their spark. After the ages of stalking this mech, they felt unease, guilty even. It was their job and they shouldn’t have taken it but there was still something alluring about this mech that even he couldn’t quite place. Something that had urged them to agree. Something cosmic, something _real._ Something that they couldn’t begin to express _how or even why._

They had to stay away, had to. But there was something that felt like they were being dragged toward the monochromatic mech. They had to stay back and kept the servo-sized camera rolling.

Prowl slumped against the bar, helm hanging down and a single optic falling down on the counter--his drink the only thing that had held his composure for. The barkeep rolled over on a single wheel, placed an empty servo on the counter under Prowl’s line of sight. “Another?” Prowl didn’t look up, only moving the glass along with a digit. 

The barkeep sighed and took the glass, doing as he did with it. “Something troubles you,” he said, quiet, “You come in here most orns now.” Prowl huffed, resting his weight on a crossed arm on the counter. “Only drunks and those who are lost drink to such an extent. And you’re not a drunk.” He waited, watched how the optic flickered. Prowl did not answer. Didn’t look up. He didn’t want to see the empathy--or Primus forbid, pitty--written all over a mech’s face that he didn’t even know the name of. Prowl only took the drink that was placed softly back on the counter, just barely touching his digit. 

“If you don’t want to say, I can’t blame ya. But as you’re a celebrity, I doubt that there’s a free moment where there isn’t someone watching.”

“That’s the problem,” Prowl grumbled suddenly. His face still in line with the counter. “The whole show, “a means to an end,” said one mech. “It wouldn’t hurtcha to try,” said and another. The whole show made me question my own head. But it’s not like I had a choice.” The chatter in the bar lightened like they actually wanted to hear him. That couldn’t possibly be the case. “So what if I don’t have a soulmate?” He drank down his libation and shuddered. “It’s not like… I’d be the only one… to not have one.”

The barkeep, the crowd, and the cameramech watched. _There that urge was again, somewhere deep, but not forgotten._

The mono-wheeled mech listened, and when Prowl fell silent again, he said: “There are many mecha out there, that secretly love someone and never get the chance to tell. You will eventually find them.”

A single optic dared to look into the orange ones of the bar’s keeper. Although he wanted to look imposing, even intimidating, he missed the mark and appeared plainly sad. “And what gives you that idea?”

“Eventually soulmates meet, for they have the same hiding places.”

**Author's Note:**

> [This is the BIG TIME INSPIRATION for this! ](http://xxforgotten-logicxx.tumblr.com/post/173190537488/chrome-mind-xxforgotten-logicxx)  
> [Follow Chome-mind on Tumblr for more awesome content! :3](https://chrome-mind.tumblr.com/)
> 
> I'm going to try and make more of this the coming weekend. But I did this instead of doing my homework sooooo, I hope y'all enjoy! This was supposed to get fluffy but my brain wouldn't have it XD


End file.
